ME 462: Introduction to MEMS Fabrication

Spring 2022

Lecture 2
Nezih Topaloglu, PhD
Outline
◼ Micromachining: An Overview
◼ MEMS Materials
◼ Substrate selection
◼ Example fabrication process
◼ Lithography
◼ Photolithography
◼ E-beam lithography
◼ EUV lithography
◼ X-ray lithography
◼ Soft lithography
 Micromachining
◼ Broad term describing
all precision techniques
to build small
structures
◼ First developed for IC
industry (60s), then
new techniques are
developed for MEMS

What is the size of this?

Machining vs Micromachining
◼ Classic Machining:
◼ Start with big material block
◼ "Machine" away parts you don't want, by using a variety
of lathe bits, mills and drills
◼ Micromachining (will be covered soon):
◼ Start with a substrate (e.g. Silicon wafer) (TR: alt
tabaka, alttaş)
◼ Spray (deposit) or grow an additional layer
◼ Apply a special layer called photoresist
◼ Develop pattern by exposing to UV light
◼ Etch or blast away material not protected by photoresist
◼ Strip off emulsion & go back to step 2
Common MEMS materials (substrate)
◼ Single crystal silicon – SCS
◼ Semiconductor and great heat conductor
◼ Most used MEMS material
◼ Single Crystal Quartz
◼ Piezoelectric properties play an important role in MEMS
◼ Compound Semiconductors
◼ Gallium arsenide
◼ Optoelectronic devices
◼ Silicon carbide (SiCx)
◼ Wide Band-Gap Semiconductor
◼ MEMS for harsh environments
Common MEMS materials
◼ Polycrystalline silicon – polysilicon
◼ Semiconductor
◼ Mostly isotropic material
◼ Silicon dioxide – SiO2
◼ Excellent thermal and electrical insulator
◼ Thermal oxide, LTO (low temperature oxide), PSG
(phosphosilicate glass). Different names for different
deposition conditions and methods
◼ Silicon nitride – Si3N4
◼ Excellent electrical insulator
◼ Aluminum – Al
◼ Metal – excellent thermal and electrical conductor
Silicon as substrate material
◼ Other materials (GaAs, Quartz, Sapphire (Al2O3,
polymers, etc) are used as well, but the most
common substrate material is Silicon, because:
◼ Extensive experience from IC production
◼ Available in pure form, abundant
◼ Well-known material properties
◼ Can integrate electronics
◼ Exceptional material properties:
◼ Very strong: (Yield Strength: 7x109 N/m2, Steel: 4.2x109 m2)
◼ Light: (Density: 2.3 g/cm2, Steel: 7.9 g /cm2)
◼ Good semiconductor properties: Resistivity: 0.5 mΩ-cm
(doped) to 230 kΩ-cm (intrinsic)
 Silicon properties
◼ One of the earth’s most abundant
elements forming 25% of its
surface crust
◼ Cubic crystal with diamond lattice
◼ Single crsytal Silicon is produced
with various methods, and Silicon
wafers are produced
(wafer: yarıiletken levha, yonga plakası)
◼ Crystal directions:
◼ Planes are shown as: (xyz)
◼ Directions are shown as: <xyz>
◼ Direction <xyz> is perpendicular to
plane (xyz)
◼ Interplanar angle calculator:
http://cleanroom.byu.edu/EW_orientation.phtml
 Wafer process

◼ MEMS & IC are made on planar wafers, to have uniformity and

better resolution during lithography
◼ A wafer goes through a multi-step fabrication process in the
cleanroom, where dust, particles and even ions in the water are
controlled
Czochralski Crystal Growth
 Doping of Silicon
◼ Doping is the process in which
impurities are added to the crystal
◼ A known amount of dopant is
added to the melt
◼ Dopant atoms from group V (P)
create mobile charge carriers that
are negatively charged (electrons)
and form n-type materials
◼ Dopant atoms from group III (B)
create mobile charge carriers that
are positively charged (holes) and
form p-type materials
◼ Electrical conductivity varies over
~8 orders of magnitude depending
on impurity concentration
Silicon wafer processing animation
 Micromachining
◼ Classified into two parts:
◼ Bulk micromachining: The substrate is used
◼ Surface micromachining: Other materials deposited on the
substrate are used
◼ Aspect ratio:
◼ Relative height/width of features.
◼ Often, high aspect ratio is desired, but it is more difficult to
build high aspect ratio structures

Low aspect High aspect

High aspect Low aspect ratio structure
ratio hole ratio structure
ratio hole

Substrate
 Micromachining
◼ Three basic techniques:
◼ Additive processes:
◼ Thin film deposition, sputtering, evaporation, electroplating,
spin-on
◼ Lithography (pattern definition)
◼ Subtractive processes (material removal: etching)
◼ Before we cover them one-by-one, let us walk
through a common MEMS process
◼ Ignore the details for now, focus on the geometric
operations
 Sample process

Expose photoresist
selectively
(photolithography)
mask

Deposited
photoresist
Deposited silicon
dioxide (SiO2)

Si wafer
 Sample process
Pattern transfer (etching):
◼ Pattern is transferred from photoresist to SiO2
◼ The etch is anisotropic
◼ Etch is stopped by the Si layer
◼ Pattern is transferred from SiO2 to Si.
◼ The etch is anisotropic
◼ Etch is stopped once the desired profile is obtained

Trenches in
substrate
 Sample process
Pattern transfer (etching):
◼ Pattern is transferred from photoresist to SiO2
◼ The etch is anisotropic
◼ Etch is stopped by the Si layer
◼ Pattern is transferred from SiO2 to Si.
◼ The etch is anisotropic
◼ Etch is stopped once the desired profile is obtained
PR is stripped off

Trenches in
substrate
Lithography
◼ The basic technique used to define and transfer patterns, in
most MEMS and IC processes
◼ Plays a crucial role in micromachining technology
◼ Optical lithography: light is directed through a mask to
selectively expose a photosensitive organic material
(photoresist)

Wafer

Deposition Lithography Etch

Chips
Lithography process steps
Lithography process steps
◼ Each mask step
requires many
individual process
steps

◼ Number of masks is a
common measure of
overall process
complexity
Fabr. of an Intel Microprocessor
Fabrication of IC (1)
Fabrication of IC (2)
 Producing masks

Source: N. Cheung, U.C. Berkeley, 2006

 Producing masks

The mask is designed by The mask is downscaled and

using CAD tools copied to obtain the final size
mask for parallel processing
Printing techniques
◼ Contact printing damages the mask
and limits the number of times the
mask can be used
◼ Proximity printing eliminates
damage, but resolution is less
◼ Projection printing: The projector
lens refocuses the light onto the
wafer many centimeters away from
the mask
◼ The trend is to use shorter
wavelength sources, to increase
resolution: UV, EUV lithography
Photoresist & exposure sources
◼ Photoresists
◼ Positive
◼ Negative
◼ Exposure sources
◼ Light
◼ Electron beams
◼ X-ray beams
 E-beam & EUV Lithography
Source: May and Sze, 2006
◼ E-beam lithography:
◼ Primarily used to produce photomasks
◼ Direct exposure of resist by a focused
e-beam without a mask
◼ Generation of sub-micron resist
geometries
Source: May and Sze, 2006
◼ Extreme UV (EUV) lithography:
◼ The light source has a smaller wavelength
than UV lithography, resulting in smaller
feature size
◼ Capable of printing 50nm features with
PMMA electron resist using 13nm radiation
X-ray lithography

◼ It is the potential candidate to

succeed optical lithography in IC
fabrication
◼ The x-ray wavelength is about 1 nm,
and the gap is 10-40μm
◼ Since X-ray absorption depends on
the atomic number of the material:
◼ Mask is a thin membrane (1-2μm thick)
made of low atomic number material such
as Si or SiC
◼ Pattern is defined in a thin (0.5μm) high-
atomic number material such as W, Au
Soft lithography

◼ Soft Lithography is a general term for a

set of non-photolithographic techniques
that rely on printing and molding to
make micro and nanostructures.
◼ Enables patterning polymers, also works
in non-planar surfaces
◼ Less expensive than photolithography
◼ Does not have any diffraction problem
◼ However:
◼ Its compatibility with IC fabrication has
not been demonstrated yet
◼ Patterns in the stamp or mold may distort
◼ Higher defect levels than
photolithography
Soft lithography

Source:
http://www.bwfoundry.com/xia.pdf

◼ (a) Planar surface – planar stamp

◼ (b) Planar surface – nonplanar stamp
◼ (c) Nonplanar surface – Planar stamp
Distortion of the pattern

a) collapsing
b) sagging
c) shrinking
Examples

High aspect ratio

structures
Examples
Examples

This is a lithography method used in rapid creation of 3D

microstructures